Hi everyone. Thank you all for calling me while I was in the hospital and talking to me. I apologize for the times when the line was busy or I wasn't available. I had been working on occupational therapy and speech therapy. The speech therapy is one that helps me regain what was lost in speech. Thank goodness not much was lost or damaged in speech. On the other hand, I have also been working with occupational therapy which directly relates to things I would do at work. This area was completely affected. It involves such things as math, problem solving, figuring out sequences, and decision making. I can relearn what has been affected because the brain has the ability to do that. The worst part is that it seems to have isolated and damaged everything associated with work. Or, I could simply use all of my abilities to do work. It could be both.

I have been home for a couple of weeks. Mom and Dad are taking turns staying with me. They are really doing a good job. Due to the halo, I am unable to drive which leads me to another topic. I was able to replace the Mazda with a Honda Civic. The Honda Civic is such a better car than the Mazda. I bought the Honda rather than leasing it. I haven't driven it yet, but mom says it is a wonderful car. The safety options on it include driver and passenger airbags, and side curtain airbags, anti-lock brakes, great crash test results, and seatbelts with an annoying beeping until they are all on everyone in the car. It is dark blue on exterior and light gray on interior.

Believe it or not, the dealership even had my plates ordered and installed on the car when we picked it up. That sure was nice. Mom drove the Civic to the farm this weekend and we plan to go to Kim's daughter's birthday party in it.

As everyone that has talked to me on at least 2 occasions, you will notice that I have terrible short term memory loss. It doesn't mean I can't do things. It just means that I have to write everything down. This includes things such as that I just called someone and left a message to call back. I have done this and when the person calls back, I don't know why they have called. It's quite embarrassing but that will hopefully get better. I would call it one of the most serious of the side affects, very close to the memory problems related to work reltated material.

I have all of my major and minor motor skills available. I did go to Mayo for a followup yesterdday and they committed that the halo will be removed on March 20th. That at least gives me an ending date to this heavy contraptrion on my head. I have purchased a large exercise ball and continue to do stretches and exercises I learned while in Therapy.

I've gotten to know Mom and Dad since I have been out and contrary to my belief and expectations, they are very pleasant people to be with. They have changed so much and are cool people to hang around with. I've needed to coordinate so much at my place and they have helped me so much that it is unbelievable. My place actually has an order to it.

I got a laptop with Vista on it. It is a nice platform that replaces Windows XP. I really like the Word 2000 edition. That sure has changed a lot. A lot for the better that is.

Other than that, there is nothing going on except that I will have to mention that I did break about 5 bones in my neck, one in my upper leg, one in my face, my skull was fractured, and then I developed another fracture in my ear area a couple of weeks after the accident. I can actually say I am lucky to be alive and actually lucky not to be paralized.

Have a great day!!!